How to Decide What to Work On

Identify your interests.

Narrow them down. Identify the ones that are the most exciting and throw the rest out. It doesn't mean you'll never think about those other interests ever again, but if you're going to devote a substantial amount of time to any of them, it should be one that gives you butterflies.

Try things. You can't really know if you like a type of work until you've tried it. If you think you might like to build websites, learn html. This can take time. Being an amateur can be frustrating, and you might mistake that frustration for dislike. A better gage is your level of interest. Paul Graham:

A field should become increasingly interesting as you learn more about it. If it doesn't, it's probably not for you.

Another way to assess your interests is to look at the people doing that work. Paul Graham:

One useful trick for judging different kinds of work is to look at who your colleagues will be. You'll become like whoever you work with. Do you want to become like these people?

If you choose work you're genuinely interested in, you'll be surrounded mostly by other people who are genuinely interested in it, and that will make it extra inspiring.

If you need a tie breaker, Graham suggets going with the most flexible option:

The less sure you are about what to do, the more important it is to choose options that give you more options in the future. I call this "staying upwind." If you're unsure whether to major in math or economics, for example, choose math. Math is upwind of economics in the sense that it will be easier to switch later from math to economics than from economics to math.

Uncertainty

If you have to ask whether you're interested in something, you probably aren't.

Paul Graham:

When you can't decide which path to take, it's almost always due to ignorance. In fact you're usually suffering from three kinds of ignorance simultaneously: you don't know what makes you happy, what the various kinds of work are really like, or how well you could do them.